An interview is a social interaction. Interviews would commonly happen one to one, with one person being the interviewer and the other the interviewee. However you can also have group interviews or telephone ones. The interviewer will question the interviewee in hope to gain information on a certain topic. Research interviews provide a qualitative method of gathering data, evidence and information. The main roll of interviews within qualitative research is to investigate issues that quantitative methods cannot. Quantitative research is “an inquiry into a social or human problem, based on testing a theory composed of variables, measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistical procedures, in order to determine whether the predictive generalizations
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The unstructured interview technique is informal, it flows more in the form of a conversation but the interviewer has a general area of interest, letting the interview develop within the chosen area. Patton (2002) and Punch (1998) describes unstructured interviews as a natural and in depth technique in getting across the information the interviewee feels on a certain subject, its not limiting them as the interviewee can speak freely. The interviewer will simple start unstructured interviews with an opening question then follow up with another based totally on the interviewees response. Instead of using a structured list of questions the researcher will normally come to the interview with no framework. Rather the interviewer generates questions on what s/he may consider relevant in response to the interviewees narration. Furthermore this method conducts qualitative data through using the technique of open-ended questions. This type of method is likely to include follow up question in order to get an in-depth explanation from the subject. This allows the researcher to get a good idea of that person’s opinion and understanding on the chosen topic. However when analysing the data collected from an unstructured interview it can be quite difficult as each unstructured interview might generate data with different patterns because …show more content…
Qualitative methods, such as interviews are used to provide a ’deeper’ understand to topics which quantitative methods cannot provide, an important advantage of research interviews is their adaptability. McNamara (1999) stated that, “Interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences. The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around a topic, Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g. to further investigate their responses.” Interviews are, therefore, most suitable where little is already known about the study phenomenon or where a more detailed response is required. A skilled interviewer can follow up on vibes they are getting off the interviewee through their thoughts, feelings and ideas behind the responses given, this is something quantitative methods such as questionnaires cannot provide. Research interviews can dig deeper into responses from interviewees to get a deep understanding into why they have answered in that type of
The unstructured interview technique is informal, it flows more in the form of a conversation but the interviewer has a general area of interest, letting the interview develop within the chosen area. Patton (2002) and Punch (1998) describes unstructured interviews as a natural and in depth technique in getting across the information the interviewee feels on a certain subject, its not limiting them as the interviewee can speak freely. The interviewer will simple start unstructured interviews with an opening question then follow up with another based totally on the interviewees response. Instead of using a structured list of questions the researcher will normally come to the interview with no framework. Rather the interviewer generates questions on what s/he may consider relevant in response to the interviewees narration. Furthermore this method conducts qualitative data through using the technique of open-ended questions. This type of method is likely to include follow up question in order to get an in-depth explanation from the subject. This allows the researcher to get a good idea of that person’s opinion and understanding on the chosen topic. However when analysing the data collected from an unstructured interview it can be quite difficult as each unstructured interview might generate data with different patterns because …show more content…
Qualitative methods, such as interviews are used to provide a ’deeper’ understand to topics which quantitative methods cannot provide, an important advantage of research interviews is their adaptability. McNamara (1999) stated that, “Interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a participant’s experiences. The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around a topic, Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, e.g. to further investigate their responses.” Interviews are, therefore, most suitable where little is already known about the study phenomenon or where a more detailed response is required. A skilled interviewer can follow up on vibes they are getting off the interviewee through their thoughts, feelings and ideas behind the responses given, this is something quantitative methods such as questionnaires cannot provide. Research interviews can dig deeper into responses from interviewees to get a deep understanding into why they have answered in that type of